Sunday, June 9, 2013

It's Official!! I am completely NUTS!!!

I'm in!! I made it!! I'm exhausted!!

These are the thoughts that were going through my head at around 11:02am last Thursday! My heart was pounding in my chest, I was starting to sweat and was even shaking a little bit! Anyone reading this right now, and thinking that I completed a race, would be terribly wrong!! I had just registered for the coveted Glass Slipper Challenge (GSC) and the Tinkerbell 1/2 Marathon, and will be receiving my first ever Coast -2- Coast (C2C) medal!!

For any of you reading this who do not already know what the GSC, the Tinkerbell 1/2 or Coast -2 -Coast is, let me explain. The GSC is the newest challenge to be presented by RunDisney. It is taking place during the 2014 Princess 1/2 Marathon weekend in Disney World taking place Feb. 20-23. This challenge includes running the Enchanted 10k on Saturday and then the Princess 1/2 (PHM) on Sunday. The draw for many people is the BLING!! For completing this challenge, runners will receive not only the 10k medal and the 1/2 medal but a special Glass Slipper medal!!! Everyone who knows me knows I run for the bling!! It is sad how much a medal can motivate me!! :) The Tinkerbell 1/2 Marathon in Disneyland takes place January 17-19. Receiving a C2C medal means that you have run one Disney race on each coast during the same year. This year running the Tinkerbell and the Princess 1/2's allow you to receive the new PINK C2C medal!! (WANT!!!)

Okay, now that you are in the loop, let me explain the issue I was having on Thursday!

Before any talk of the GSC or the new C2C, I had already decided to run both the Tinkerbell and the PHM in 2014. I was lucky to run the PHM in 2012, and it was such a motivating factor for my health and fitness that I just needed some more of that special Disney motivation. At this point, I was not the least bit nervous about registration, I really didn't even think about it, I was just going to log on and register when the time was right.... and then it happened....

Disney announced the GSC and the new C2C and things on all the social media networks started going crazy!! People worrying about the race selling out in record time, getting into PHM and then not getting registered for Tink. The information coming out of Facebook groups and Twitter was mind numbing and got me nervous about not being able to make my dream come true!!

Once it was announced that Annual Passholders, Disney Vacation Club members and Disney Visa card holders would be able to register early on June 6th, things got even crazier! I was constantly watching Facebook to make sure I had the information right, and I was planning my day to make sure I was available at noon EST to register!!

On Saturday, June 1 the registration link accidentally went live and from what I understand around 50 people used that link to register. Luckily, Disney did not honor those registrations and things calmed down.

On Thursday morning, things on Facebook were blowing up! People were panicking and just generally very excited! I followed a post that had over 300 comments in just a few minutes! I have to admit, that is was a lot of fun to be part of the madness, it just added to my excitement about these races! At about 10 minutes to 12:00 EST, the link went live!!!

I entered my information on the registration site so fast, my heart was racing!! I was so excited to get the option to register for both the GSC and Tink at the same time (Tink registration doesn't open until July!!).

So, in the end I registered for GSC, the Royal Family 5k, the GSC Race Retreat and the Tinkerbell 1/2!! Disney got a HUGE chunk of my paycheck that day!!

It did not take long for the advance registration of GSC to sell out... I hope all of you who wanted to register and could register early got in. If not, remember registration opens on July 11th to the public!!

I am hoping that Disney announces a 10k at the Tinkerbell 1/2 weekend too! I will, of course, register for that too!!! I still have to register for the Neverland 5k in July, but, that doesn't fill up as fast!!

I am so, so excited about running these races!! And of course, getting the medals!!! I am hopping to meet up with all the amazing RunDisney people I have met online in the last year!! :)

About Kristy

Hello! I'm Kristy. Even though I have been running for 2 years, I still consider myself a beginning runner. With lots of false starts during college, I really didn't start running until my early 30's. Running is a constant challenge for me, and is something that has caused me to push myself harder than I ever have before! Come along with me on my journey though life and running!